A review of “Odyssey” by Stephen Fry
As I anticipated the 2026 blockbuster movie “The Odyssey” by Christopher Nolan, I thought that it was about time that I familiarised myself with Homer’s epic work of some 2,700 years ago. The original poem was recited from memory and eventually was set down as a work of 12,109 lines composed in ancient Greek in a form known as dactylic hexameter. There have been many translations and lots of interpretations.
A friend, who is an English teacher, recommended the 1996 translation by the American academic Robert Fagles, but I confess that I immediately felt intimidated by this tome. Instead, I decided to read a simplified 2024 version written by the British actor Stephen Fry, actually the last of four books in his series retelling the Greek myths.
There are numerous characters and many adventures in this tale of the ten-year journey of Odysseus from his victory at Troy to his waiting wife Penelope and son Telemachus on the island of Ithaca, but Fry makes an admirable fist of guiding us through the complicated cast of gods, monsters and mortals and the amazing challenges faced by the returning Greeks. Odysseus himself comes across as a complicated and conflicted character. Certainly, a great fighter and leader who is immensely brave and resourceful, but also a man who is vain, selfish, deceitful and a womaniser.
So many modern plays, novels and films make reference to, or borrow from, “The Odyssey” so, why does it continue to resonate so vividly? Fry highlights that, at its heart, it is the idea of a return home and concludes: “Whether home is a physical or a spiritual, a real or imaginary place, our journeys to find it or return to it will always remain, we can be sure, a proper subject for art, music, drama and entertainment. Homer’s Odyssey will eternally stand as the avatar and exemplar – as appropriate enough, the home of such stories.” This is why we should all have some knowledge of the work.
I can’t wait to see Nolan’s film.